Four new iOS apps you should check out this weekend

Music, photo, and video apps make our list.

You don't need us to tell you that there are hundreds of thousands of apps on the App Store—it would be impossible to try them all out. Here at Ars Technica's Infinite Loop, we go hands on with new and updated apps that are of the biggest interest to readers, but sometimes, we just don't get the chance to go in-depth with all the coolest apps we see pop up during the week. So, at least this week, we're trying something new by highlighting the best app releases that caught our eye. After trying them out, we think you should check these apps out, too. Let us know what you think, and we may continue doing these when appropriate.

Without further ado, here are the four apps we saw this week that are probably worth downloading. Three are free and one is paid, and there should be something for everyone.

We Mac users at Ars have always loved 1Password for managing passwords and other personal information on the computer. The mobile version for iOS has been a handy addition since its release in 2008, especially now that we live in a world where we barely know our own Facebook passwords anymore, much less our passwords for Amazon, Gmail, or anything else.

This week, the AgileBits team released version 4 of this amazingly useful password manager for iOS devices. The app has been redesigned to ditch the PIN code, instead asking for a master password similar to that on the Mac. There's a new toolbar option for favorites, so you don't have to keep searching for the handful of logins that you're constantly trying to use on your iPhone. The toolbar also allows for categories and folders so you can organize your logins and other information.

The software can sync with 1Password on your desktop over either iCloud or Dropbox. Owners of the previous app(s) may notice that version 4 is now a universal app that is compatible with iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads—older versions were sold separately per device, so this one is sold as a completely new app that will work on all your devices with one purchase. That means you'll have to buy again (that's bad), but AgileBits is offering the new 1Password for half off "for a limited time" (that's good!). I've been using 1Password on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad for years now and I couldn't go back—especially on my mobile devices—so this is a highly recommended update if you're anything like me and you need easy access to your password info.

Amazon's Instant Video service has certainly been making strides over the last year to be a serious contender against Netflix. The company is constantly adding new content and continues to try to bribe Prime subscribers into dipping their toes in the Instant Video pool by offering incentives to take slower shipping in exchange for video credits. Amazon released its app for streaming videos to the iPad in August of this year, and now the iPhone version has landed as well.

For those catching up, Amazon Prime subscribers now have access to Netflix-like movies and TV shows to stream, and you can still rent or purchase videos from Amazon the old fashioned way as well. The iPhone app allows for offline viewing of those rented/purchased show, with an Internet connection required for streaming. The app allows you to browse Amazon's offerings and add things to your watch list, and it can sync your place in a video so you can pick up where you left off on another device.

As noted by MacRumors, this app doesn't support AirPlay, so no streaming to the Apple TV for you. It also doesn't support the use of cellular data for watching videos, so you'll be required to be on a Wi-Fi connection if you want to stream. Still, Instant Video is picking up steam—especially among existing Prime subscribers—so the app is certainly a handy thing to have on your phone if you've begun to shift your watching habits over to Amazon.

Yes, there are (now) tons of ways to listen to music on your iOS device without requiring you to use the built-in Music app. Last.fm's new Scrobbler app is one of them, allowing iOS users the ability to "scrobble" listened-to songs to Last.fm's servers so your friends can see what you're listening to and give you access to playlists from people who like the same kind of music.

But the new Scrobbler app isn't just an add-on from the old iTunes plug-in days. It's meant to be an alternative to Apple's music-listening app in every way—you can play your iOS music library in addition to songs that might be stored on iCloud, but the app gives you additional metadata, such as tour dates and artist information.

TheNextWeb took a more in-depth look at this app, explaining why this official release from Last.fm is better than how we've all been doing it up to this point. "Scrobbling from an iPhone has always been easy when using third-party apps like Spotify, but due to the way apps are sandboxed in iOS, scrobbling plays of local files in the Music app required syncing your device with your computer and praying that the Last.fm app there picked up the plays as they synced with iTunes—it rarely worked correctly."

For those of us who have been scrobbling our listening habits to Last.fm for practically a decade, this release has been a long time coming. As TNW notes, it's practically a no-brainer to download if you're a longtime user. But even if you're new to Last.fm, it's worth checking out to see whether it's time to ditch your other music apps.

OK, so we did write about the new Flickr app earlier this week when Chris Foresman argued that it (plus Twitter's new app) were "too little, too late" when it comes to adding kitschy filters for iPhone users. And that may be true—Instagram was certainly a first mover in the old-timey-iPhone-photo space—but that doesn't mean the entire app should be ignored.

In fact, Flickr's new iPhone app is significant in many ways, not the least of which is that the app is Flickr's first major mobile push in many, many years. Longtime Flickr users (*raises hand*) had sadly abandoned trying to browse, upload, or pretty much do anything on the old Flickr app because it was so limited and outdated, but the new app already has many subscribers excited. Completely made over, the app has a new browsing interface that makes it much more aesthetically pleasing (and usable) to look at photos uploaded by your contacts, and adding a photo as a "favorite" is now as easy as "liking" something on Facebook.

You can, of course, also browse your own photos, sets, groups, and favorites, and while the uploading interface (with its dastardly filters) may be controversial for being so Instagrammy, it's certainly easy-to-use. Overall the app is a huge improvement on what was already becoming an abandoned photo sharing platform. As Anil Dash pointed out on Twitter, the new app also lets you find friends who are on Twitter and Flickr, juicing everyone's enthusiasm for actually participating on the platform again.

If you're an existing Flickr user, it's at least worth a download to check things out. And new users might want to see what's going on too—after all, Flickr could make a grand comeback while Instagram and Facebook might suddenly implode. Stranger things have happened.

Anything else catch your interest this week?

Let us know which other app releases got you excited this week. And feel free to suggest new ideas to the Ars staff and each other; we're always looking for some new apps in our lives, and they may get highlighted in future app roundups!

Jacqui Cheng
Jacqui is an Editor at Large at Ars Technica, where she has spent the last eight years writing about Apple culture, gadgets, social networking, privacy, and more. Emailjacqui@arstechnica.com//Twitter@eJacqui

Really glad to see Amazon expanding their Instant Video app. I have it on the iPad and it's lovely.

Kestrel wrote:

Aaargh! Amazon Instant, why yuo no support AirPlay?!

For those interested - not only is AirPlay not supported, but neither is it supported by getting the corresponding iDevice connector => HDMI / Component cables. This is something I've learned the hard way, through several purchases.

Jacqui, is there anything in particular that makes 1password a better option than KeePass (Windows, OSX, Linux) + KyPass (iOS)? The latter is the setup that I use, and it appears to be far cheaper given that KyPass is the only component that has a cost associated with it.

Jacqui, is there anything in particular that makes 1password a better option than KeePass (Windows, OSX, Linux) + KyPass (iOS)? The latter is the setup that I use, and it appears to be far cheaper given that KyPass is the only component that has a cost associated with it.

There's also pwsafe which is compatible with password safe that has free clients that run on all platforms:http://app77.com/pwSafe/

It's about time that Last.fm made their own player. Their iTunes plugin sucks people bad for calculating iphone/pod/pad plays. It tries to read the database on the device and over the years has failed more than it has actually worked for me across 4 different devices.

I can't imagine having to constantly go into 1Password to update my passwords everytime I have to reset/update them.

You don't have to manually do it on the Mac app. Ideally, you're generating your passwords with 1Password as well, and it automatically recognizes new logins and will present an option to save a new login, or replace an existing one (and it'll even keep a password history).

I don't think the iPhone app is supposed to be a standalone solution, though I guess it could be. It's supposed to be used in conjunction with the Mac/Windows app.

Honest question as I'm trying to get set up with a password manager: Is 1password all that much better (sure looks nicer) than Lastpass? Outfitting a PC, iPhone, and iPad with 1password costs something like 4-5x what Lastpass does.

Honest question as I'm trying to get set up with a password manager: Is 1password all that much better (sure looks nicer) than Lastpass? Outfitting a PC, iPhone, and iPad with 1password costs something like 4-5x what Lastpass does.

I've never used other solutions, but I can tell you that I personally believe 1Password is worth every penny. Great, great app, especially the Mac version.

I tried to switch over to it and it was just frustrating. It was much less automatic than I had expected, especially for the price. For $50, I expected that it would know how to automatically set up common websites like Amazon/Facebook/iTunes etc. with my new randomized passwords, with only a bare minimum of user interaction. And even accepting that it can't do that, I kept having problems where it just wouldn't work or would remember the wrong password for a site.

Have you tried it? The browser integration in v4 is massively improved over v3. I don't know if I'd replace my regular browser with it, but it works well for its task. Since, indeed, it can't integrate into the browser in iOS, what would you suggest might be a better solution?

It is. In practice I use it manually, copying and pasting passwords. Having jailbroken (and thus having copy/paste history) this is slightly more convenient, but even so it's still a far cry from actual integration. That's all on Apple and their shitty policies though. Even with the extra inconvenience vs the desktop version, it's still very useful IMO. Given that for most passwords there is persistence (ie., a cookie to remember you on that device) I don't find myself needing to go into 1P very often. On the flipside having my passwords and secure information with me is very helpful, even ignoring that it'd be impossible to actually remember them on my own (by design).

Mhorydyn wrote:

Have you tried it? The browser integration in v4 is massively improved over v3. I don't know if I'd replace my regular browser with it, but it works well for its task. Since, indeed, it can't integrate into the browser in iOS, what would you suggest might be a better solution?

That there's no better solution (short of them going to the trouble of writing some helper in Cydia, which probably wouldn't be worth their time) doesn't change the fact that it's a crummy situation. It's not their fault, but it's still a downside.

I can't imagine having to constantly go into 1Password to update my passwords everytime I have to reset/update them.

I'm curious what your alternative is for updating your passwords and if it is any less labor intensive? Or maybe you're not writing them down at all --- which could explain your having to constantly update/reset your passwords .

Honest question as I'm trying to get set up with a password manager: Is 1password all that much better (sure looks nicer) than Lastpass? Outfitting a PC, iPhone, and iPad with 1password costs something like 4-5x what Lastpass does.

While I personally didn't find these apps useful, I do like the idea that Ars posts these recommendations from time to time. I'm always interested in finding new apps and extensions for browsers as well so I would really like it if Ars would make this a regular thing. Not just for iOS, but for Android, WP, Chrome and Firefox as well.

I can't imagine having to constantly go into 1Password to update my passwords everytime I have to reset/update them.

What would the problem be? I turn to 1Password to update passwords because of its built-in password generator. Once the password is generated it is also saved to that entry already, saving steps. Also, it remembers the previous passwords in case you need to get back to them for any reason. In general it is more convenient, robust, and secure than the old text file or spreadsheet a lot of people use for passwords.

And, because 1Password exists on iOS and Mac OS X, all I have to do is wifi-sync my Mac and iOS devices and any passwords that were updated are now present on all devices, eliminating future frustration when going back to that site on a different device later.

Y3k-Bug wrote:

DOOManiac wrote:

How is 1 Password supposed to even work on iOS, since it can't plug into the browser?

The app has a built in browser.

I don't like the 1Password browser because I use some of the additional features of Safari like multiple tabs, but that doesn't make 1Password any less useful.

1Password supports the absolutely standard iOS tap conventions for copy and paste. Therefore it's really no big deal to copy and paste the password into the browser. I mean it's just not any big hindrance at all. And I only have to do it for sites or apps that have forgotten my password because I cleared cookies or something. So not very often really.

Even if 1Password was fully integrated into the Safari iOS browser, keep in mind that half of the password entries on iOS are not into your account in a browser, but into an app that is asking for account info.* Because 1Password is unlikely to be integrated into any apps, once again the solution is copy and paste the password into the app field.

*Increasingly I notice posts on Ars from people who still think in 1990s desktop terms, not in mobile terms which is rapidly becoming the mainstream computing experience.

Amazon Instant is unavailable outside of the US, whereas Netflix is available in several countries. And Amazon Instant doesn't support Airplay but the Netflix app does.

So exactly why are you recommending we "check out" this iOS app this weekend?

Because the 'we' in your sentence include a lot (the majority reading this in fact) of people who are both in the U.S., and have no need for Airplay at the moment?

yeesh.

There are ovver 31 million people in Canada, over 63 million people in the UK, and millions of other English readers/speakers around the world. Ars Technica isn't a local newspaper with zero web presence. People from all over the world visit Ars Technica, so my original complaint is valid: the Amazon Instant app is useless for people outside of the US. The other three apps that Jacqui mentions can be used by non-Americans.

Maybe Ars Technica needs to add a little American flag at the beginning of any article that is intended for American readers only.